My two year old recently came down with a runny nose, (green and yucky), and a 101 degree temperature. One of my first thoughts was "What will I feed him which will strengthen him?" Of course, pratically everyone has heard of the chicken soup cure. Even my family doctor's office has advertised scientific studies which support this very old and very well known theory. But I couldn't help but think to myself, is there a better cure for A's?

Coicendently, I had planned on serving him black bean soup and had the necessary ingredients ready. I decided to "beef it up" so to speak. Here's what I did:

olive oil

onions

garlic

three great big handfuls of freshly chopped parsley

black beans

carrots

celery

a little salt

corn

I sauteed the onions, garlic, celery and carrots. Next I added a pinch of salt, and then the remaining ingredients. While this tastes good to me, it is a little on the plain side. Normally I would have added some shredded mozzerella cheese and add a few organic corn chips. But since my two year old can't handle cheese, I just served it plain.

He hated it. Hmmmm, what' a mother to do? Aha! Such an easy answer - I fed him some leftover pumpkin bread along with pineapple juice. Off to bed for the sick one and off to the fridgerator for the soup. When dinner time came, I prepared some plain white rice in chicken broth (not the instant kind, but as whole grain white rice as you can find), and then added a big spoonful of cold black bean soup.

He couldn't get enough. Grandma, who just happened to stay for supper, couldn't get over it. He went to bed with a full stomach and slept through the night (hoorah!). I almost medicated him - thinking that I really needed to get 7 hours of sleep last night, but I didn't. There is no fever today.

Was it the pineapple juice filled with vitamin C? Was it the onions and garlic? (Garlic is not normally part of the black bean soup recipe - nor so much parsley). Was it the combination of all the ingredients of the soup? (That's a 90% beneficial soup, by the way.) I don't know. I just know that he ate quite a bit of it and he slept through the night.